I'm back, but this time with my biggest, heaviest, and fastest creation of them all! The Mercedes Benz Actros 8x8. This particular Actros features a modified cab, modified engine, (800 break horse power, turbo charged, V12) engine compartment, reinforced suspension, and improved electronics. Remember when I said that I was working on a huge Lego creation? Well, here is the first out of three power eating MOCs! (No spoilers here...) I have finally made a four axle truck. This is the first MOC that I actually tried to use relatively the same colors,(no more rainbow truck) and thanks to a truck load of Legos that just arrived, I have actually somewhat accomplished my goal. :D Now onto the pictures and the technical explanations.

About this creation

Here you see a close up of the side of the cab, engine compartment, (big box behind cab) and jet engine that serves absolutely no purpose at all. Note the slanting on the windshield.

The bed of the truck really doesn't fit the theme all that much, but I couldn't just show the chassis and all the other stuff that was there. Now you can see the fifth wheel, the spare tire, and the bumper at the back.

I am not sure that this picture shows what I wanted it to show very well, so bear with me here. (O__O) If you look closely, you might notice that the front axle turns ever so slightly more than the axle behind it. I was working on an axle with ackermann steering geometry, but this truck did not need it. Then there is also a small one cylinder electric generator that is just for looks. (Above second axle)

Still two battery boxes...

The front of the cab. Note the windshield wipers, the Mercedes Benz logo, the license plate, and the lack of seats.

Now this is the interesting part, so don't fall asleep on me yet. The drive motors are actually inside the cab. The two motors are connected to a side of the differential in the center, so I can turn on one motor and the truck will go slow, but if I turn on two motors, the truck will go almost twice as fast. This is basically an expensive two speed transmission. If you know how a differential works, you will understand this. All I am doing is using the differential backwards, using the (normal) input as output. Simple, yet effective.

This truck also incorporated a modular design. Even the whole cab comes off without removing a single piece.

Peek a boo! I hid the IR receivers here because I normally stand behind the truck while driving it. This setup gives me the best possible connection.

New pictures:
Here is the gearbox. All the gear reduction is done here. (excluding the differentials in the axles and in between the two motors)

A front view of the gearbox attached to the front axle. Both front axles have the same gearbox above them. The steering lock is in the axle its self. The front steering lock is 1:1 and the second one is 1:3

Here you can see the two gears (1:1) that make up the steering lock in the very front axle. As well as the "leaf spring" system.

Speaks for itself...

The rod that goes into the back two axles is the drive, and the rod below the drive shaft is the steering shaft.

Technical specifications:

Speed: In top gear, about 2-3 kilometers an hour. In low gear, less than 1 kilometer an hour.

Thanks! Yes, both motors are on a different part of the receiver. The current electrical set up is: a battery box for one receiver that is connected to the XL steering motor, all future lights, and smaller less power demanding applications, and the other battery box for another receiver that has both outputs taken up by the two drive motors. This way I can individually turn on each drive motor. Thus the two speed transmission. I will definitely upload some more pictures soon, keep an eye out!

I really like this truck. The two motors and differential was a great idea, kinda like an automatic gearbox if you would have each motor on different receivers. I did not know if you had it set up like that. If you could put more pics of the bottom of the truck that would be great.